Regional universities reject funding changes

The Abbott government’s expected review of university funding is driving a wedge between vice-chancellors, with regional university chief Peter Lee calling for the present system to remain.

“We haven’t had any graduates yet from the demand-driven system. So by all means let’s review but it’s a little early to draw the conclusion its not working," said Professor Lee, vice-chancellor of Southern Cross University and chair of the Regional Universities Network.

Under former Labor government’s demand-driven system the number of Australian-resident university students has risen by 150,000 since 2007, creating fears of a budget blowout if student growth continues.

Professor Lee rejected a proposal made on Friday by University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis to change the present uncapped, per-student, funding model.

Professor Davis said that the federal government could have budget certainty by allocating each university a set amount of funding and allowing them to decide how to spend it on students.

This would benefit the University of Melbourne by allowing it to allocate more government funding to postgraduate student places.

However, Professor Lee emphatically rejected the plan saying it would prevent regional universities from growing their student numbers.

“People with degrees in the regional areas are half the rate of in the city," he said.

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He said regional areas of Australia needed their students to study locally because they were far more likely to stay in the area after graduation.

Under the current system, recommended by the Bradley review, higher education has been partially deregulated with universities free to enrol as many undergraduate students as they choose, with government funding available to all of them.

But the system is not fully deregulated, meaning that universities cannot increase student fees, despite calls from the Business Council of Australia and several policy analysts.

Chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology Bill Scales, who was a member of the Bradley committee, said that full deregulation would lead to a “market failure" with not enough students studying professions such as nursing where wages are low.

“In a few years there might be the opportunity to free some of this up but we have to be very careful about how we do it so we don’t undermine some of the important areas where skills are required," he said.

He said that offering large numbers of scholarships for students from low socio-economic groups would have to be part of a freeing up of the system.

Meanwhile, private colleges are looking to gain access to government funding to play a role in providing higher education to students from a low socio-economic background.

Claire Field, executive director of the Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET), will release a paper on Monday that suggests private colleges and TAFEs should receive federal government-supported, higher education student places.

The paper, prepared for ACPET by the Australian Council for Educational Research, said that colleges and TAFES could initially target students from under-represented groups.